Capital punishment is not a front-burner political issue this year. In fact, the Democratic Party dropped the subject from its 2024 platform, eight years after becoming the first major party to formally call for abolishing the death penalty. But in 2020, President Biden’s campaign platform included a pledge to “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” Once elected, he became the country’s first sitting president openly opposed to capital punishment.
It would be an appropriate and humane finale to his presidency for Mr. Biden to fulfill that pledge and try to eliminate the death penalty for federal crimes. Such an effort would also remind the nation that this practice is immoral, unconstitutional and useless as a deterrent to crime.
For more than two decades now, most barometers of how Americans view capital punishment — the number of new death sentences, the number of executions and the level of public support — have tracked a steady decline. There were 85 executions in 2000 but only 24 last year and 13 so far this year, all carried out in only seven states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
While a majority of Americans, about 55 percent over the past several years, remain in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers, half no longer believe it is used fairly. The Gallup Crime Survey, which has been testing opinions on this subject of fairness since 2000, found in last October’s sampling that for the first time, more Americans believed the death penalty was applied unfairly (50 percent) than fairly (47 percent).
transcript
‘I Am So Sorry’: Meeting the Man I Put on Death Row
“I regret deeply that we followed the easiest path.”
“This is death row. And this man doesn’t have long to live.” “I haven’t seen him in more than 20 years.” “Good morning, Robert.” “Good morning to you, Brian. Brian or Mr. Wharton?” “Brian’s fine.” “OK.” “Let me just say, I am so sorry that you’re here and so sorry that you are still here.” “Yes, sir.” “It’s our failure.” “Yes, sir.” “It truly is. But he’s never been far from my mind. Why? Because I helped put him here, and he didn’t deserve it.” “In 2002, I was the chief detective in the police department in Palestine, Texas. A 2-year-old girl was fighting for her life. Her name was Nikki. She had been brought to the hospital by her father, Robert Roberson.” “Roberson told staff they were sleeping in their Palestine home when he woke up and saw Nikki unresponsive, having fallen off the bed.” “When I got to the hospital, Robert wasn’t showing any emotion. His daughter is dying, but he doesn’t seem to care. The medical staff were talking to me about shaken baby syndrome. That’s when an infant is killed or injured after being violently shaken. Nikki would die the following day. If she died of shaken baby syndrome, then there was only one person who could be responsible. So we arrested Robert. He was tried, convicted of murder and sent to death row.” “That was two decades ago. Since then, I have left police work and entered the ministry. But I’ve never been able to forget Robert Roberson. This case has been a burden on my heart and my spirit. Let me just say that you have never been far from me. And I’m convinced we did the wrong thing.” “I think if it would have been properly investigated more, we wouldn’t be here sitting here now, probably.” “No other possibilities for her injury were considered. I regret deeply that we followed the easiest path.” “It was bad enough being — losing her, right?” “Yes, sir.” “I would do anything, anything now to bring her back,” “I would occasionally check this website to track his status. When I’d see his name, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Good. Somebody’s still working with him through the appeals process. An appeal has got to straighten this out, find the truth.’” “I tried to move on. I would comfort myself and say, ‘Look, the system did what the system does. He’s got an attorney. He got his Miranda warnings. We went by the book. He’s where he’s supposed to be.’ But several years ago, someone appeared at my door. It was Robert’s attorney. And I told her, ‘I’ve been expecting you.’ Sadly, I guess it took her appearing at my front door for me to find my voice again. I now understand that Robert did, in fact, have autism.” “It’s hard for me to express myself certain things and stuff. I had lots of things I was going to talk to you about. But sometimes, you get wordless — wordless and stuff.” “I understand, yeah. Autism would explain Robert’s flat affect and lack of emotion in the hospital. It’s absolutely insane that this never came up in his trial. I’ve now come to understand that Nikki was a very sick child and that some of those medical issues could have very easily played into the injuries that ultimately killed her. And shaken baby syndrome, it’s been substantially discredited by many in the medical community. Not only is there reasonable doubt that Robert did do it, there is unassailable doubt that Robert did do it. But for us at the time, we really felt like we were doing the right thing.” “Yes, sir.” “What do you want to say to me — me and the folks that helped put you here?” “I’d like to let you all know, I’ll forgive y’all and stuff. Forgive y’all and stuff. And I just hope and pray that we can make things right together.” “Yeah, I hope so, too. And I appreciate your forgiveness. It means a lot to me. We as human beings are incapable of producing the kind of fairness and justice required to take someone’s life. We can’t do it. And since we can’t do it every time in the same way, justly and fairly, then we don’t need to be doing it at all in the United States and certainly in the great state of Texas. We need to abolish the death penalty.” “And thank you, Brian.” “I’m praying for you, brother.” “I’m praying for you, too, brother.” “Humans are too fallible to do this fairly. We make mistakes. I made a big mistake. It’s a weight I will carry for the rest of my life.”
This editorial board has long argued that the death penalty should be outlawed, as it is in Western Europe and many other parts of the world. Studies have consistently shown, for decades, that the ultimate penalty is applied arbitrarily, and disproportionately to Black people and people with mental problems. A death sentence condemns prisoners to many years of waiting, often in solitary confinement, before they are killed, and executions have often gone awry, arguably violating the Eighth Amendment ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”